During my month in Laos God started teaching me more about family. I was blessed to have internet every day, and that combined with a workable time difference enabled me to communicate with my family back home more than most months. I even got to Skype my dad on his birthday (which I sadly couldn’t do for my mom while I was in India).
This month was also my first month with my new team. One thing that my lovely team leader emphasized from the start was that we are family, we are sisters in Christ. This means choosing to love each other each and every day. Even if she is loud and speaks before thinking, even if she is reserved and takes more time to get to know, even if your values and interests are polar opposite of yours (other than Jesus at least), she is still valuable, worth loving, and family. This was a bit of a struggle for me as I had been with the exact same team for 6 months making this my first team change. I had grown accustomed to being around a team that knew me fairly well, and starting new with different people is a difficult task. It requires more effort for me to reach out and get to know each of these girls on a personal level, but that effort is worth it. And I’m learning more each day how to love them better.
I also learned about family on a bigger level though. Just as my new teammates are my sisters in Christ, so all believers around the world are my brothers and sisters. Our contact this month welcomed us like family. We got to spend time with his wife and beautiful children. We were welcomed into relationships with the faculty and students school that they run. Just seeing how our contact’s family interacted with each other and us spoke volumes. Leaving at the end of the month genuinely felt like leaving my family. I even almost cried.
Family loves unconditionally. It encourages and asks the difficult questions. It chooses love even when it hurts. It welcomes you no matter how different you are. And I am super excited to continue to choose love for my new team/family. I’m excited to see how my team learns to share that familial love to our brothers and sisters in Christ internationally.
